SHOCKED builders unearthed more than 20 grenades abandoned after the end of World War II.
The workmen discovered the explosives on a site near Ruffwood School, in Ruffwood Drive, Kirkby.
Police were called and arrived with a team of Army bomb disposal experts.
They destroyed the weapons using a series of controlled explosions in a skip at the Balfour Beatty site.
That sent plumes of smoke across nearby fields where dozens of people left their homes to watch.
The grenades were too unstable to move and were believed to be AW bombs – named after their wartime manufacturers, Albright and Wilson.
Norma Rothwell, 71, who lives near the site, said: “We heard this bang and I thought it sounded like a bomb.
“I had no idea what was going on so I walked around to have a look.
“There’s a lot of war history here so the whole thing is really very interesting.”
